Existing comment:
Early Rail Routes:
Congress designated the nation's 1,913 miles of railroad tracks as post roads in 1838. By then, mail was already being carried on most tracks. The Post Office Department recognized early that the expanding rail system would be useful in carrying mail.
After the Civil War, clerks began sorting mail aboard trains. As the miles of track grew, railway mail became the backbone of the postal service. By the 1870s, more mail moved by rail than by stagecoaches and steamboats combined. |